Please note: Accuracy and availability of IPR transcripts may vary. 00;00;00;07 - 00;00;24;07 Michelle Kinsey Pokey Lafarge blends early jazz, blues, country and swing into a vibrant, distinctly American sound that feels both old timey and fresh. And he is returning to the Muncie Three Trails Music series on July 25th, but we are thrilled to be able to chat with him first. Thank you so much for joining me, Pokey. Appreciate it. 00;00;24;10 - 00;00;26;20 Pokey LaFarge Good to be here. Good afternoon everybody. 00;00;26;23 - 00;00;38;14 Michelle Kinsey You've become something of a Muncie Three Trails favorite. What do you remember about performing here and what keeps you coming back to communities like ours? 00;00;38;16 - 00;00;59;06 Pokey LaFarge Well, I guess I wouldn't be able to come back if they didn't want me back. So I have to give credit where credit is due there. And I guess going in reverse, you know, I often jump at the chance to play in the Midwest. It's it's where I'm from. And get closer to home is always good. You know, my people are just over in Illinois. 00;00;59;07 - 00;00;59;27 Michelle Kinsey Yeah. 00;00;59;28 - 00;01;27;14 Pokey LaFarge And then. Oh, what do I re- I remember about it. It's really, really hot. By really hot, I mean, really humid. Yes. But then it kind of kind of cools off at nighttime, you know, depending on the day. And I remember there's a lot of people there, and it's outdoors, of course. And so people are usually in a pretty good mood, you know, and nice surroundings. 00;01;27;16 - 00;01;35;19 Michelle Kinsey I know you always call out the trains. There's always trains that seem to go by when you're playing here. And it works out really well. Yeah. 00;01;35;21 - 00;01;38;00 Pokey LaFarge Oh, right. Yeah. 00;01;38;02 - 00;01;49;11 Michelle Kinsey Yeah. You mentioned you are a midwestern guy. What was it about blues and roots music that captured your attention as a teenager in the Midwest? 00;01;49;14 - 00;02;09;18 Pokey LaFarge Well, maybe the two things in the foremost part of my mind right now would be I knew what was informing the music that I was listening to at the time, which was a lot of sort of classic rock. That was my springboard into the older music. 00;02;09;19 - 00;02;10;02 Michelle Kinsey Yeah. 00;02;10;03 - 00;02;21;24 Pokey LaFarge So 60s and 70s music, I guess, you know, CCR and Doobie Brothers and Allman Brothers and Grateful Dead and all those kinds of guys. 00;02;21;27 - 00;02;56;16 Pokey LaFarge Yeah. And they would cover a lot of those old cats too. So, you know, that's what got me. I was able to discover a lot of the musicians just before them, the Chicago blues stuff, the New Orleans soul and Memphis sort of soul and R&B stuff because those guys were covering them, you know. And at the same time, it was completely different than what everybody was listening to at the time, which was like grunge and gangster rap and emo and a bunch of sort of top stuff, top 40 stuff, which I had absolutely no interest in. 00;02;56;17 - 00;03;09;12 Pokey LaFarge So I found that wherever there's a large collective of people going, I'm almost in every situation going to at least make strong consideration in going the other way. 00;03;09;14 - 00;03;23;04 Michelle Kinsey (Laughs) So that leads me to the new album, which is dropping in September. You've been making music for more than two decades. What is different about your approach on this new album that's coming out? 00;03;23;07 - 00;03;59;26 Pokey LaFarge Yeah, it's a good question. I would say that I want it to be even more simple, even more minimalist. Just start with just me, my voice and guitar, bass and drums. And then the only thing that would be added on top of those things would be absolutely necessary. So yeah, I mean, I guess in a way, getting back to my roots of the stuff that I really grew up with, but I would say I take that sort of country and bluegrass and hillbilly world to a certain extent into everything that I do, because that's where I got started. 00;03;59;28 - 00;04;23;09 Pokey LaFarge That's sort of the first language that I spoke, you know, and I'm realizing more and more of the things that you learn as a kid, you learn them so naturally, so intuitively that you just kind of, I don't know, you sort of master it in a way that you can you can't learn when you get older. Like, I'm not going to go learn how to surf at 42, almost 43 years old. 00;04;23;10 - 00;04;42;17 Pokey LaFarge But if I learned when I was ten, my body could handle it. And it's kind of the same thing with like learning a language. They say if you learn a language before the age of 16, you would speak it without an accent from your mother tongue. So I kind of feel like the things that I learned as a kid, I just kind of can do more effortlessly. 00;04;42;24 - 00;04;44;00 Michelle Kinsey Yeah. Because. 00;04;44;03 - 00;04;48;22 Michelle Kinsey Yeah, it's become a part of your DNA right? After all of this time. It's who you are. 00;04;48;24 - 00;04;59;01 Pokey LaFarge Yeah, yeah. Yeah, exactly. So I feel like no matter what kind of musical styles I go and touch, the sort of essence of my voice is always going to be the same. 00;04;59;03 - 00;05;06;15 Michelle Kinsey The title track, Rent Money, talks about a time when working hard is no longer enough to pay the bills. 00;05;06;16 - 00;05;37;19 Pokey (singing) (Music) Work nights and days, boy. I know I’ll get ahead, the day that I'm dead. The man got to get his paper. That's what I get for all my labor. What can you do? What can you say? Nothing today (hey). The good Lord giveth, the landlord taketh away. 00;05;37;21 - 00;05;47;21 Michelle Kinsey Times are really tough for a lot of people right now. What do you think is the role of music during times like this? 00;05;47;28 - 00;06;11;16 Pokey LaFarge Well, I can't speak for everybody else, but I can speak for myself and say that I know there's a lot of reasons to be angry out there in the world. Some of them are justifiable and some of them are not justifiable. We waste a lot of our time being angry when we shouldn't. But again, there's some righteous indignation. 00;06;11;18 - 00;06;52;06 Pokey LaFarge I don't find that that's my... I try and take that into my music. Music is not gonna say, it's like a safe space or whatever to away from the anger. But it's it's sort of processed or I should say channeled into maybe some more different emotions overtly. For me, I try to communicate a little bit more of like a good time and enjoy. I also don't think that you need to provide a solution in the music as well, whether there's a solution or not. I always say in this case, a lot of people have different ideas on that. That's why I'm not a politician. 00;06;52;08 - 00;07;13;03 Michelle Kinsey Yeah. (laughs) And I think, I think it's it's not so much a solution, although I'm sure there are a lot of artists that that look for that. But I think with you it's more about that kind of deeply human connection. Right. Like communicating those things on a level where, you know, so many people can relate. 00;07;13;05 - 00;07;37;14 Pokey LaFarge Yeah, that's a great point. Sort of bearing the burdens with other people and being relatable by just merely talking about it. And then it kind of allows people to hopefully process it in their own way. Again, maybe a solution isn't necessarily needed, but just the fact that we're we're sort of talking about it, the sympathy aspect. You know, it's like you're not providing a fix, but if somebody comes you with an issue, they just want you to listen. 00;07;37;15 - 00;07;52;20 Michelle Kinsey Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. I cannot end this chat without congratulating you. And I know you probably had an amazing Father's Day recently, did you not? 00;07;52;22 - 00;07;56;27 Pokey LaFarge (Laughs) Yeah. Good. Yeah. First of. First of many. Godwilling and good on you. 00;07;56;28 - 00;08;13;00 Michelle Kinsey Yeah. Well, congratulations on on your first on your daughter with your wife, Addie. That. How is that changing your perspective on life and performing and art and music and all of that stuff? 00;08;13;02 - 00;08;42;26 Pokey LaFarge Well, I mean, it's early days. She just turned two months, but. You know, we're not totally in just survival mode anymore. I think I, you know, she's a really good baby. We've been blessed with that. But yeah, I mean, I kind of mentioned it earlier, thinking about those things, thinking about your own childhood, perhaps a little bit more than you than I used to, and how that translates to how we raise her. 00;08;42;29 - 00;09;01;08 Pokey LaFarge So I said, like, you know, you learn a language before you're 16, you speak it without the accent of your mother tongue. I think learning languages would be important for her, for us. It's really fun to think about because, you know, you were we're so used to thinking about ourselves all the time, and now I get to think about somebody else. 00;09;01;10 - 00;09;07;17 Pokey LaFarge Obviously, you know, my my wife, but this is this is this is a new level of surrender. 00;09;07;18 - 00;09;17;18 Michelle Kinsey Absolutely. So are you looking forward to how this is going to come out in your music in the future, these new experiences? 00;09;17;20 - 00;09;32;02 Pokey LaFarge Well, sure. I mean, hopefully it does relate to me making more music or it may make me just retire and pick a completely different profession. Then that way I could stay home and have a lot more children. 00;09;32;04 - 00;09;47;18 Michelle Kinsey Yeah. We can't end this with you depressing all of our listeners by saying you're gonna retire Pokey, that--you can't say that. So we'll say that we are looking forward to seeing you in July at the Mun- Muncie Three Trails music series. 00;09;47;20 - 00;09;53;02 Pokey LaFarge And I'll just say everything's temporary just like our one night in Muncie. So enjoy it while it lasts. 00;09;53;03 - 00;09;56;22 Michelle Kinsey There you go. Thank you so much. Appreciate the time, Pokey. 00;09;56;25 - 00;09;57;22 Pokey LaFarge Toodaloo, buckaroo. 00;09;57;24 - 00;10;15;15 Pokey (singing) (Music) Well I had everything under my control. But the thing wasn't worth selling my soul. The thing that I got ain’t the thing that I thought that I wanted. The thing that I got ain’t the thing that I thought that I wanted. 00;10;15;17 - 00;10;21;10 Michelle Kinsey Pop of Culture is back on August 7th. Until then, toodaloo, buckaroo!